Weather News

Cyclone brings rain to Top End cattle country

Tropical Cyclone Alessia arrived in the Northern Territory overnight, bringing welcome rain to some Top End cattle producers.

Although downgraded to a tropical low, heavy falls were still recorded in parts of the Victoria River District, including 126 millimetres at the Upper Wickham River.

Sally Dyer from Hayfield Station, north of Elliott, says storms associated with the cyclone dumped over 80 millimetres on her property.

"Yesterday morning we measured 55 millimetres, and this morning about 30 millimetres," she said.

"It was really exciting to sit down and watch it rain, instead of having to worry about everything else.

"There is a fair bit of water around, so that will get the grass to grow which is good news."

Joel Lisonbee from the Bureau of Meteorology says while the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) has not been a factor in the recent wet conditions, it could bring more rain to the Top End later in the week.

"The MJO is this big wave of tropical weather, and when it is over us we usually see a burst in our monsoon," he said.

"But for the last two weeks it has been really weak, and has not been playing a part in our tropical weather.

"It will be coming into this part of the world towards the end of the week, or early next week, but most of our models are keeping it quite weak.

"So it probably won't have much of an influence and most models also have it moving really quickly out of our part of the world, but maybe this weekend it might have something to give us."